282 
ORIGIN OF LIFE IN AMERICA 
as they are not supposed to be subject to accidental dispersal. 
The West Indian mammals* consist of a mixture of exceed¬ 
ingly ancient and of apparently much more modern types, and 
yet all are distinct enough from mainland forms to exclude the 
idea of recent land connections of the Greater Antilles either 
with Central America or the two neighbouring continents. 
The most ancient mammal found in the West Indian 
islands is the curious insectivore Solenodon. It is the sole 
genus of the family Solenodontidae, whose nearest living 
relations are the Centetidae of Madagascar and West Africa. 
The two Antillean forms (S. paradoxus and S. cubanus) f are 
in general quite similar. Yet they differ somewhat in size, 
colour and dentition, as well as in the shape of the skull, and 
for that reason are perfectly distinct species. The first is con¬ 
fined to Haiti, the other to Cuba. Professor Leche $ expresses 
the view that Madagascar lost its cont inental land comiection 
already during the Eocene Period. Hence the Centetidae may 
be of early Tertiary or even Mesozoic age. Professor Leche 
believes in a former land connection between Madagascar and 
Africa, and in another between Africa and Brazil. Both of 
these must have existed about the same time, and they were 
used presumably by the ancestors of the Centetidae and 
Solenodontidae in passing from Madagascar to South 
America, and thence to the West Indies, or vice versa. 
The only large West Indian mammals, Capromys and 
Plagiodontia, belong to the rodents. The hutias, as they are 
called, remind us somewhat of the great rat-like South 
American coypu, but the tail is longer and they possess 
arboreal habits and certain structural characters differing 
from the latter. The two genera of hutia are quite confined 
to the West Indies. Three species of Capromys are known 
from Cuba, one from the Bahamas and one from Jamaica. 
Still another Capromys inhabits the small Swan island, in the 
Gulf of Honduras, mid-way between Jamaica and Central 
America. Nevertheless, the genus is quite unknown from the 
mainland. The other genus (Plagiodontia) only occurs on 
* Allen, Glover M., “Mammals of West Indies.” (This work was 
received too late for discussion.) 
t Allen, J. A., “Notes on Solenodon paradoxus,” pp. 507 — 515. 
f Leche, W., “Centetidae, Solenodontidae, &c.,” pp. 132- 139. 
